


A Cat's Delicacy

by MarsDragon



Category: Tenkuu no Escaflowne | The Vision of Escaflowne
Genre: Fluff, Food, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-21
Updated: 2017-08-21
Packaged: 2018-12-18 03:16:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11865516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarsDragon/pseuds/MarsDragon
Summary: Hitomi brings back presents from the Mystic Moon.





	A Cat's Delicacy

**Author's Note:**

> For an Escaflowne fanworks challenge on tumblr. Theme was "food".

Blankets for the homeless in the Sun Plaza, then baskets of food to the western refugee camp, and report back to Princess Millerna about how the aid efforts were going.... Merle sighed. Hitomi really was inconsiderate, running off like that and leaving her to run errands all alone! After she gave that long, self-pitying speech about how all the destruction was her fault instead of _Zaibach_ -

"Merle!"

Merle jumped five feet into the air, bit her tongue, and dropped all the blankets she was carrying at once. Think of dragons! There was Hitomi running up like she'd never thrown that fit and run off to the Mystic Moon and caused so much trouble and made Lord Van (and Merle) worry. Merle could just about scratch her face off for all that. 

Instead she coolly licked at the back of a forepaw, as if girls returned from the Mystic Moon was a common occurrence and utterly beneath the notice of a worldly cat like Merle. "There you are. 'Bout time Lord Van fetched you back."

"Yeah..." Hitomi looked sad, and clutched her pack a little closer. "Sorry for just....leaving like that."

"You should be!" Merle snapped. "Everyone was worried sick! I- We thought we'd never see you again forever! Don't do it again!"

And somehow that made Hitomi laugh, like all those hours Merle and Lord Van had spent looking at the Mystic Moon were _funny_. "Sorry Merle, really," she said, sounding normal again. "I didn't mean to scare you or anything. Here," she rummaged through her bag, "you liked my Pocky, didn't you? I brought more snacks." She held out a small box and a bag that crinkled when it moved.

Merle's tail smoothed itself down as she leaned forward to take a closer look. The box was red and it did seem a little familiar - now it was brought up she could remember eating something out of Hitomi's bag, that last day - while the bag was orange and covered in strange pictures Merle couldn't understand. Mystic Moon writing? She picked them both up and gave them a closer look. No obvious way to get inside. Well, that was why cats had claws. Who knew what the humans did? Maybe these were only for cats. 

Inside the box was _another_ bag, which just seemed excessive. Inside that were little sticks that crunched and were covered in a sweet coating. Eating one finally got her to remember eating them before - they were tasty, if cloyingly sweet. Was all food from the Mystic Moon sweet? Hitomi liked sweets beyond all reason, so maybe... Merle opened the unknown bag with trepidation. 

Inside were small, multi-colored diamond things with holes. They smelled a little like fish, but more strongly of spice and something Merle couldn't identify. Nothing for it but to try, so she popped one into her mouth. 

It tasted like it smelled. It crunched between her teeth too - what was with Mystic Moon food and crunching? All they did was crunch! If this was what Hitomi had grown up on Merle couldn't imagine why she had turned her nose up at the bugs, she should've been right at home. But it didn't taste bad, exactly, and it at least wasn't sweet. Merle ate another one, and another, before she managed to stop and crumple up the bag to stop any more scents from escaping. The little things went down so fast you couldn't stop eating them! Strange. The entire thing was strange. 

But tasty. She nodded in approval. "They're good," she informed Hitomi, who gave a relieved smile in return. 

"I'm glad," Hitomi said, "I thought you'd like the cuttlefish snacks. It was such a last-minute thing... I hope everyone else likes theirs too."

"Everyone else? Theirs?" Merle jumped over the pile of blankets at her feet to nose at Hitomi's bag. "What else you got in there?"

"Hey!" Hitomi spun around to keep the bag away from Merle, who just followed right along after it. "They're not for you!"

"Let me see!"

"Ugh! Fine." Hitomi stopped and rummaged through her bag some more. Merle caught glimpses of clothes, more brightly colored bags, and other Mystic Moon artifacts. Finally, Hitomi came up with three metal tubes. "I got some coffee. I thought Dryden and Folken might like it. Maybe Millerna too."

Merle's eyes narrowed. Dryden fine, Millerna fine...but that lousy, stinking, traitorous coward most certainly did _not_ deserve presents. Especially not presents from Hitomi! Did all those pillars of light make her to lose her memory? He'd tried to kill her _and_ Lord Van! Merle snapped one of the tubes out of Hitomi's hand and shook it, ignoring Hitomi's protests and demands to give it back. It felt like it was full of liquid and didn't open to her claws, even though it was so thin she could bend it with the slightest of effort. "What _is_ this?" she demanded.

"I told you, it's coffee!" Hitomi made to grab the can back and missed. "Give it back, Merle! You wouldn't like it anyway!"

"Why not?" Merle jumped back and skittered up a statue of some dead Asturian lady where Hitomi couldn't reach. The koo-hee tube kept resisting her scratches. So irritating! How was anyone supposed to get inside?

"It's a drink for adults." Hitomi glared up at Merle, arms folded. "It's bitter. _Super_ bitter. You'd hate it. People on the Mystic Moon drink it to stay awake."

Merle gave up scratching at the tube. If she couldn't open it, the traitor coward probably couldn't either. She threw it back down to Hitomi, who failed to catch it even when Merle had thrown it right at her. "So it's like kammtcha," Merle said in lordly tones as she jumped down herself. "Kammtcha's all right, but they probably have a massive supply of it already. I guess Dryden might like it, he likes new things." She picked up her own presents and the blankets, trying to organize the blankets to look like she hadn't dropped them. The lady running the shelter was so fussy about things like that. 

Suddenly Merle's ears pricked up as she thought of something very important. "Did you get anything for Lord Van?" she asked, perfectly innocently.

Hitomi turned red to her ears. "Of course I did! But little thieves like you don't get to-" Whatever she wanted to say was cut off when Merle darted close enough to get a good look inside the bag. Clothes, artifacts....and a little white box with gold filigree on it. 

"Faaaaaaaaancy," Merle said with a slow grin, "Is it food? Or-"

"None of your business!" Hitomi shoved her away and stuffed the koo-hee back in the bag while glaring. "Don't you have somewhere to be already?"

"Fine, fine," Merle said, lordly again. She did have places to be, important places. Much more important than Hitomi. "Princess Millerna is probably by the king's bedside again, unless she's in another meeting. She'll want to know you're back too."

She was halfway down the hall before she remembered. "Oh, and thanks for the snacks!"


End file.
